LARAMIE, WYOMING (Nov. 11, 2019) – The Wyoming Cowgirls trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half of their game against Saint Mary’s of California Sunday afternoon. But, they slowly chipped away at the deficit, hit some timely free throws, and walked off the floor with a 69-67 win.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=20]
The Cowgirls, now 2-0 on the season, were clutch at the free throw line (six of six) to hold off a late Saint Mary’s push. St. Mary’s of California, 1-2 on their season, led 31-25 at the half. Wyoming cut the lead to 49-46 by the end of the third quarter before outscoring the Gaels 23-18 in the final quarter for the win.
“I’m so proud of our young women,” said head coach Gerald Mattinson. “They came out and played so hard. Once again, we made some mistakes, and we’re going to make mistakes, but we grew up some today”.
New Cowgirl head coach Mattinson now joins Bonnie Hulstrand and Chad Lavin as the only coaches in Cowgirl basketball history to start their career on a winning streak of at least two-games.
Mattinson added, “They experienced a very good team. That team is very good. They’ll win a lot of games in their conference. They shoot the ball so well, and they have great size. We executed the game plan we had put together. That’s another step of growth. Overall, we came ready to play, we scrapped and we battled.”
The Cowgirls were led offensively by sophomore Alba Sanchez Ramos, who had a career-high 19 points on the strength of a career-high five made threes. The Spaniard added a career-high five rebounds, two assists and two steals on the day. Sophomore Tereza Vitulova scored 11 points and had a career-high seven rebounds. Senior Taylor Rusk added 10 points, four assists and three rebounds. Freshman McKinley Bradshaw added nine points, two rebounds, a block and two steals.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=22]
Wyoming freshman Jaeden Vaifanua scored the game-sealing free throws, while sophomores Karla Erjavec and Quinn Weidemann each went 2-for-2 from the line in the final minute of the game. The clutch shooting kept the 2,402 fans in the Arena-Auditorium on their feet.
“Once again, our fans were awesome,” Mattinson said. “When your fans are up there yelling for you, and they’re cheering for you, it lights a fire under our team. It means so much to them.”
Weidemann scored nine points and had a career-high eight rebounds. She stuffed the rest of the stat sheet with a career-high-tying four assists, a block and a pair of steals. Weidemann’s block came on a Saint Mary’s three-point attempt with 14 seconds to play to preserve a four-point Cowgirl lead.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=22]
The Cowgirls will travel to Denver Univeristy Thursday night. Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on WyoRadio’s 1360 KRKK and streamed at 1360KRKK.com beginning at 6:30 p.m.
